Fog had been our companion all day after the aborted shore landing in the morning. The expedition and bridge teams eventually decided to continue North – to make it up to Nordaustlandet … a trip of ~130km that took us all afternoon.

Our destination here was Torellneset – a bay where walruses were to be expected. The plan now was to make use of the midnight sun and have a zodiac cruise in the late evening – after dinner – to (ideally) get a glimpse of the animals. Zodiac groups were swapped this time, so the ones who did not get ashore in the morning were now allowed out first.

While dinner was pulled in by an hour (now starting at 18:00), it still turned out a bit hectic for folks to be ready in time for the cruise. I ended up in the ship’s smaller specialty restaurant tonight, indulging on Japanese-Peruvian fusion cuisine – and as I now was in the second group to go, there was plenty of time to enjoy the food and drink.

The time came – and it was out and onto a zodiac. As we made our way through the fog we eventually could see the outlines of the small walrus colony – and a white dot a few hundred meters from it … that white dot was polar bear – indulging on his (or her?) dinner … possibly a serving of walrus (no cilantro here). We could not believe our luck – what a great day!